"Supreme Court sends Rath Rott Mony’s case for retrial", 15 July 2020

The Supreme Court … sent the case of RT fixer Rath Rott Mony for retrial after finding that the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold his conviction for incitement was incorrect.

Rott Mony was arrested … over his role in a documentary by Russia’s RT news service about sex trafficking of minors in Cambodia, for which he was credited as a producer but maintains that he was merely a translator. He was found guilty of incitement to discriminate and sentenced to two years in jail ...

“The Supreme Court considers that the Court of Appeal had made an incorrect decision, so [the Supreme Court] has decided to reject the verdict of the Appeal Court and return the case of defendant Rath Rott Mony for retrial, at the Court of Appeal,” she said.

… The film over which Rott Mony was jailed, titled “My Mother Sold Me,” was released last year and told the story of three young girls who were supposedly sold for sex by their mothers…

Rott Mony’s wife Long Kimheang said via messenger after the hearing that it was unjust for her husband to remain behind bars after the Supreme Court had ordered a retrial.

“For me, if the Supreme Court has turned down the Appeal Courts’ conviction, then why doesn’t the court release my husband?” she asked…

Yi Soksan, a senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, who monitored the procedures at the hearing said he was disappointed that the highest court had decided to send the case for a retrial because it would prolong the procedure, affecting the defendant’s freedom…